8 days to halloween

last weekend nicholas and i were out doing chores and shopping. we stopped at costco where they sell what the sell in bulk, in big packaging and dimensions. i mean huge. gigantic. fucking enormous boxes of stuff. including tickets for events and movies and the like.

and there it was: tix to a haunted attraction for pretty cheap. i pointed these out to nick and asked if he'd like to go to a haunted house. he jumped at the chance. i warned him that it's scarier than scary and it's probably too frightening for him. i told him we won't buy the tickets but instead drive out to the haunted house and take a look-see.

i know he's too young for serious scares. there was no way in hell i'd take him on the tour anyway. but i was curious to see what the haunted house looks like from the outside. it's been many years since i went to a haunted attraction. when i was a wee pup i was both fascinated and frightened to death by haunted houses. usually i'd wait outside while the group i was with would take the tour with, what i thought at the time, the serenity of a zen monk and superman's nerves of steel.

when nick gets older, if he wants to, he'll hold his old man's hand at a haunted attraction. it's difficult to convey the thrills and excitement produced by the arts of the scary. fun and an adrenaline shot thru the cerebral cortex is part of the attraction. perhaps also the dalliance, even if it is a fiction, with death for a few minutes is part of it as well.

below is an audio tour of the haunted mine at knott's scary farm, located in so cal, in the early 1980s. what i love about this clip of history is the thrilling screams of the riders, how the men will scream out, oh shit! and, what the fuck is that?! that these riders are having a great time is without question. more sensible individuals might wonder why a person would subject him/herself to such terror. fun lies at the bottom of it. seriously. life imatates art and we, at these attractions, reinvigorate that the art of life can be a joy too.



happy halloween!